Sunday, January 3, 2010

The BEST of 2009!

2010 has just begun & we're celebrating it's beginning by reminiscing on some of our favorite staff picks of 2009! Just because it's the new year doesn't mean you still can't go back through some of these fantastic titles...

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Await Your Reply is a literary masterwork with the momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively uncharted and perilously unmoored.

My favorite novel of fall 2009, this is a masterful tale of identity, deception & betrayal as seen through the eyes of three seemingly unconnected pairs of people. I could not put this book down!

-Lori

A Gate At The Stairs by Lorrie Moore

In this dazzling new novel—Lorrie Moore's first in more than a decade—Moore turns her eye on the anxiety and disconnection of post-9/11 America, on the insidiousness of racism, the blind-sidedness of war, and the recklessness thrust on others in the name of love.

One of the best writers around! Don't miss this coming of age novel by this bestselling author!

-Linda R

Stitches by David Small

An ideal starting point for anyone curious about graphic novels & a superb treasure for those who already appreciate the genre!

Though Small has crafted a most compelling biographical tale, the true beauty and skill lies in his resounding artwork!

-Angela

The Financial Lives of Poets by Jess Walter

In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter ("a ridiculously talented writer"—New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.

This book is laugh-out-loud-when-your-alone-in-a-public-place funny! It's also a sweet, heartfelt story, terribly sad & not a little outraged! -Eric

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

I can't say enough good things about this book! It's moving! It's enlightening! It's tragic! Finkel has captured this tale of the men & women who volunteers their lives for a war none of us believed in, in a way that I will remember for quite some time!

-Anthony

The Evolution Of God by Robert Wright

In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved.

Though the idea of God seems, of late, so thoroughly refuted by minds like Hitchens & Dawkins amongst others, Wright here lays the foundation for a hopeful theory of religions cultural evolution.

This may be the funniest little book of baking mishaps you will ever read! Trust me! We laughed until we literally cried!

-Colleen & Eric

A Shadow Falls by Nick Brandt

From the opening images in A Shadow Falls, of a verdant world filled with multitudes of animals, to the closing images of small bands of creatures moving across a parched, dusty earth, Brandt portrays a mythic Africa struggling against tragic forces.

Nick Brandt is to me the Ansel Adams of African wildlife! A genius far outranking most others in his field! A brilliant feat of photographic artistry! -Colleen

Stay tuned for forthcoming reviews on new 2010 book titles! Happy Reading!-Colleen